Acts 24:15

ἐλπίδα ἔχων, cf. Acts 23:6 : St. Paul speaks of the hope as a present possession, “ habens id plus quam προσδ. expectant,” Bengel; in LXX very frequent with ἐπί, but for εἰς cf. Isaiah 51:5, Ps. 118:114, so here, a hope supporting itself upon God. καὶ αὐτοὶ οὗτοι : the Apostle makes no distinction between Sadducees and Pharisees, but regards the Jews who were present as representing the nation. προσδ., Acts 23:21, cf. St. Paul's words in Titus 2:13; Galatians 5:5. μέλλειν ἔσεσθαι, see above on Acts 11:28, and cf. Acts 27:10, future infinitive with μέλλειν only in this one phrase in N.T. ἀνάστασιν … δικ. τε καὶ ἀδίκων : the belief was firmly held in all circles where the teaching of the Pharisees prevailed. But was this belief a belief in the resurrection of Israelites only? Was it a belief in the resurrection of the righteous only? The book of Daniel plainly implies a resurrection of the just and the unjust, Acts 12:2, but we cannot say that this became the prevailing belief, e.g., in Psalms of Solomon, although Acts 3:16 may probably be based upon the passage in Daniel, yet in Acts 24:13 there is no thought of the resurrection of the sinner (cf. 2Ma 7:14, σοὶ μὲν γὰρ ἀνάστασις εἰς ζωήυ οὐκ ἔσται, addressed to Antiochus Epiphanes). So Josephus, in giving an account of the ordinary Pharisaic doctrine, speaks only of the virtuous reviving and living again, Ant., xviii., 1, 3. So too in the Talmudic literature the resurrection of the dead is a privilege of Israel, and of righteous Israelites only there is no resurrection of the heathen. On the other hand there are passages in the Book of Enoch where a resurrection of all Israelites is spoken of, cf. 22, with the exception of one class of sinners, i xxxvi, xxxvii lxx, lxxxiii xc, Apocalypse of Baruch l Leviticus 6, but in Enoch xli liv. we have a resurrection of the righteous Israelites only, cf. Apoc. of Baruch xxx. 1 (cf. with this verse in Acts). See further Charles, Book of Enoch, pp. 139, 262, and Apocalypse of Baruch, l.c., Psalms of Solomon, Ryle and James, Introd., li., pp. 37, 38, Schürer, Jewish People, div. ii., vol. ii., p. 179. Weber, Jüdische Theol., p. 390 ff. (1897). Enoch xci civ is placed by Charles at 104 95 B.C., and Baruch xxx is ascribed to 2, written after the destruction of Jerusalem.